Queenslanders are being urged to don masks again indoors as the flu and COVID-19 threaten to fill 1,000 of the state's hospital beds this winter in a forecast "worst-case scenario".
As Queensland surpassed 1,000 COVID-19 deaths, Acting Chief Health Officer Peter Aitken called on people to take self-responsibility and think about wearing masks again to reduce the spread of disease in the community.
"We encourage people to wear masks in those high-density settings but we're not at this stage going to go out mandating that," Dr Aitken said.
"We know masks are simple, easy and effective. Wearing masks will help stop transmission of respiratory disease, whether that's COVID, whether that's flu … or the other winter viruses that are out there."
The latest Queensland Health data shows the state has so far recorded 7,825 flu cases in 2022 – 49 per cent higher than the 2017-2021 average of 5,248 at this stage of the year.
"The flu season this year is much, much earlier than in previous years," Dr Aitken said.
"Case numbers have risen dramatically."
Hospital system faces strain
In an exclusive interview with the ABC, he said health authorities were worried about the looming impacts of the double whammy of the combined effect of COVID-19 and flu on the state's hospital system.
"It's our health workforce that is really struggling at the moment. They're tired. They've been doing this … particularly the guys and girls at the coalface, for two-and-a-half years.
"Just as we're starting to see the potential tail of COVID, we're getting flu numbers ramping up.
"Some of them are going to really struggle. It's going to be really, really hard. We'll have to do more with less, and that's hard work."
Dr Aitken said Queensland was yet to record its first flu death in 2022, but that was inevitable as more people required hospital admission and intensive care.
On Tuesday, 115 people were in the state's public hospitals with flu, including 11 in ICU.
Another 426 Queenslanders required hospital beds for COVID, 15 of them needing intensive care.
Apart from mask-wearing, Dr Aitken urged people to stay up to date with their COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, with the Queensland government taking the unusual step this week of making influenza jabs free.
With Queenslanders still required to isolate for seven days after a positive COVID-19 test, Dr Aitken foreshadowed a time when that would be relegated to pandemic history.
"That's still a little while away but that's something to hope for and something to look forward to," he said.
"Pandemics come in waves. We've just got through our second wave with Omicron. In all likelihood, we'll have a third wave. We're watching other strains overseas at the moment.
"What we'd like to see, if we have to have a third wave, is that we have a much less severe form … of COVID, and each time we have a wave, it has less impact, based on severity of disease and our immunity and our vaccination rates."
Dr Young gone but not forgotten
After more than six months without Queensland's long-serving former chief health officer Jeannette Young at the helm, Dr Aitken used a sporting analogy for life without the "icon" leading the state's pandemic response.
"In some ways it's like sports teams. Your star player retires, or your star player gets injured, and you can never replace that star player," Dr Aitken said.
"But someone else has to come in and do the role."
He said he continued to have "the odd text conversation" with Dr Young, who became Queensland Governor last November.
"Her advice is always sound," Dr Aitken said.
